With every new year comes new consumer trends and behaviour. 2019 saw hypes including the release of 5G data, a ‘less is more’ outlook favouring more simplified, focused products and a rise in touch-free interactions (all hail AI!).

This year looks to be no different. Expert research from bodies such as Canvas8, Euromonitor International and TrendWatching has predicted some big changes in consumer habits for 2020. Our teams are always on the lookout for the next opportunity to launch new campaigns, try new formats and create the best possible content, which means our brands are often ahead of the curve with their marketing tactics.

Check out some key examples of where Delivery Hero delivered what people want, before they even knew they wanted it!

Hello more Netflix

In keeping with consumers preferring on-demand offerings rather than waiting for live showtimes, it’s expected platforms like Netflix and Amazon Video will only continue to be chosen over regular TV packages.

This is something foodpanda in Romania anticipated at the end of last year when it collaborated with HBO GO, a service allowing subscribers to tune into current and past HBO content through the likes of their phones, TVs or other digital media players.

“The younger generation in Romania does not really watch TV anymore, so we predicted the trend quite accurately,” Alexandru Ion, Head of Marketing, explained.

foodpanda users could opt in for a free month trial of HBO GO after placing an order and a digital campaign accompanied the partnership, including videos featuring food-focused scenes from Romanian TV series Umbre (Shadows) with a branded end screen. The main star of the show, Serban Pavlu, even provided the voice-over!

“We went to the premiere of the show (HBO GO invited us as VIP partners), we saw the food scenes and thought they would be amazing if used as content in a commercial,” Alexandru explained of the fun idea. “We watched the show and enjoyed it a lot. Also, using [Serban] as the voice-over was pure genius as his voice is very famous in Romania.”

The brand further pushed this promotion on two influencer channels, including a video via animated series Jimmy Hex, which now has over 1 million views.

Podcasts to grow in popularity

Step aside radio and music – it appears the podcast is having a resurgence this year as more and more young people are expected to stream from different platforms.

With episodes varying in length, listeners can tune in whenever and wherever they want, whether it’s getting ready for work in the morning or during their commute home, providing another format for companies to release original content.

Týna is one of the influencers who kicked the Dáme jídlo podcast series off and has her own account dedicated to this topic.

That’s exactly what our Czech brand Dáme jídlo has done, creating a podcast focused on food, healthy living, nutritional advice and workout habits, featuring influencers including Týna, who kicked the series off and has her own account dedicated to this topic.

“We were looking for new ways to increase the reach and participation of our community and potential customers – and a podcast was the answer,” Marketing Specialist Kateřina Kašperová shared. “Inspire, educate and show different ways of leading a healthy lifestyle – that is what we want [to achieve]!”

A company’s mindset matters

If presented with a choice of brands to use, consumers are more and more likely to go for one that positively impacts the world around us. With new start-ups establishing themselves as ethical and environmentally friendly from the get go, it means other older, more established businesses may have to play catch up.

Our European brands are already winning in this area though, including Austria’s mjam. Along with all our European operations, the brand became 100% carbon neutral at the start of 2020 thanks to the help of supporting body ClimatePartner, announcing the news with a dedicated campaign comprising of an educational video, special landing page, social media posts and an influencerpartnership.

“We are happy to be the first food delivery service in Austria that can call itself climate-neutral,” Artur Schreiber, CEO of DH Austria, shared. “To take responsibility for our CO2 emission is part of our commitment for a more sustainable future and one of the most important projects for mjam in 2020 and beyond.”

Watch the educational video here:

Specialized social media

With more social media platforms today than ever before, people are turning to new channels that are catering to their need to explore and communicate with others. This means users are changing the way they use their current accounts, and investing more time in creating visual content on platforms like Snapchat.

One brand that has well and truly embraced this trend is Yogiyo in South Korea, who recently launched a campaign on TikTok based around their latest TV commercial, the ‘Yogiyo song’, featuring actress Park So-dam from the Oscar-winning movie ‘Parasite’.

“We wanted to not only spread [the song] but also engage with our younger target audience,” Senior Brand Specialist SunYoung Cho explained. “We thought TikTok was the right media where users are creating the contents by themselves voluntarily.”

The team in South Korea created a hand dance competition – a big trend on the short-video app. Participants uploaded their own dances to the song to win a voucher and were guided by six local influencers.

The results were beyond impressive; over 10 days the brand gained a staggering 25 million impressions on both Yogiyo and TikTok, with over 40,700 people joining in the fun. “We were surprised by not only the numbers but the quality of content, which is getting much higher as they are competing themselves within the platform,” SunYoung added.

And that’s just the beginning! Stay tuned to see what else we get up to in 2020.